Cutting the Clutter: DJB staring at massive revamp to improve services
New Delhi: Several major decisions were taken in the restructuring of the Delhi Jal Board to boost output and improve the efficiency of solutions to water-related problems, a DJB official told Millennium Post on account of anonymity. Through the restructuring of the Board, the DJB will now spend more time on executing projects rather than tendering, the official said, adding that the impact of the structural changes will be seen in the next two-three months.
The senior official claimed that under the current structure, an executive engineer with the board ends up spending 8 months in a year on paperwork and other administrative tasks. He said under the new structure, "The engineer who is on the field will focus only on the fieldwork and solving the problem rather than being caught in the administrative hullabaloo."
The utility board has also decided to depute one executive engineer for each of the assembly constituencies in Delhi, under which there will be teams at the municipal ward-levels to coordinate and streamline services. Currently, the DJB has 22 executive engineers. Promotions will also be given to lower-ranking officers to increase manpower for services.
"One executive engineer is unable to coordinate the problems of one constituency efficiently as he has multiple constituencies under him. The prime focus will be solving sewage and water-related problems in that constituency while the local MLA will coordinate with the DJB officials which as of now the engineer had to do," the official added.
The restructuring of the board will also affect the tendering process of projects which till recently would take three months has been cut short to 3 days. The administrative part of new large projects will now be done in a matter of months rather than years.
A system of Rate Contract work has been initiated wherein smaller works that are less than Rs 10 lakh will not require tendering.
Also, the empanelment of new projects between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 500 crore has been introduced. Under this, firms will be empanelled and exempted from tedious technical bid filing processes. Once empanelled, the agency can do the work for five years. A centralised office space is also on the cards to streamline administrative tasks.
Meanwhile, the Centre on Tuesday asked the DJB to expedite projects related to
cleaning the Yamuna and its banks along with those related to the river's rejuvenation. It has asked the board to ensure untreated sewage is not flowing into the river.
In a meeting held on Tuesday, various ongoing water projects were discussed, a senior official who attended the meeting told Millennium Post. Water Minister and chairperson of the DJB Satyendra Jain is set to hold another round of discussion on the cleaning of the Yamuna on Wednesday with technical staff and engineers.
